


Knight in Dented Armor

by lavvyan



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: ('tis my favourite trope and you shan't make me let it go), (spoiler: he gets one), Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friends to Lovers, Lou Grover is Good Police, M/M, Not Really Character Death, POV Outsider, Steve McGarrett Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-26 23:10:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13867971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavvyan/pseuds/lavvyan
Summary: The mall is in flames, vomiting greasy smoke and the smell of burning plastic. Steam from the firemen's hoses drifts thick through the air. Steve stares at the fire, his expression so openly forlorn that Lou aches for him.They find Danny's car on one of the lower parking decks.They don't find Danny.Just another of those oh-noes-he's-dead-wait-he-isn't stories because I've only written that particular trope a dozen times so far.





	Knight in Dented Armor

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Рыцарь в ржавых доспехах](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16365977) by [cicada](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cicada/pseuds/cicada)



> There will never, ever, _ever_ be enough stories that contain the beautiful trope that is "perceived character death." I guess I never grew out of my "and then they'll be sorry so there!" phase. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ 
> 
> Unedited, not beta-read, concrit welcome.

Sometimes, usually after some insane stunt that ends with Danny yelling while Steve makes pacifying gestures (or with Danny stomping away, seething, and Steve trailing after him like a duckling after its mama), Lou idly wonders if those two are a couple. By now, he has so many tallies in the 'yes' and 'no' columns that he's pretty sure he'll never figure it out. 

Then again, the way they are around each other? Doesn't make a lick of difference if they're together or not. 

At least, that's Lou's usual conclusion. 

Turns out he's wrong about that. 

~~~

The whole tragic thing starts with stationery. With Grace's current obsession with fancy stationery, to be exact. Apparently, she's been waxing poetic about watercolor birds for days now. Danny, being the good dad he is, picks up on the unsubtle clues and wearily agrees to buy his daughter some expensive paper. 

So when Steve tells Danny about the Papyrus store at the Ala Moana mall, that's just one brother looking out for another. When Steve doesn't tell Danny about the Papyrus website with its online shop (which Lou knows about because Will has ordered from them several times, probably hoping to get some of that stationery back as love letters) and sends him off, fully aware how much Danny hates malls? That's yet another example of how the two of them love to make the other's life just that little bit more difficult sometimes. Lou thinks nothing of it. 

This means that Steve has about thirty minutes to enjoy looking forward to Danny's rant about malls and, later and louder, asshole friends who neglect to mention the possibility of online shopping. Thirty minutes for Lou to watch him swallow down his expectant grin, only for it to pop up again seconds later. 

Then Jerry stumbles into Steve's office, pale-faced and out of breath, and everything goes to hell.

~~~

(Much later, Lou will ask how the hell Jerry knew before everyone else. Jerry will tell him, shrugging, that he always sets up a Google Alert when one of them goes off on their own.

Lou will never be able to decided whether that's scary or comforting.)

~~~

Lou drives, because no way is he letting Steve McGarrett loose on unsuspecting traffic. Steve tries to call Danny's phone the entire time. 

"The person you are trying to reach is not-" a pleasant female voice announces from the speaker. 

Steve dials again. 

"The person you are-"

Again. 

"The person-"

Again.

"The-"

Lou's own phone rings two minutes into the drive. It's Jerry, telling them that he can't track Danny's GPS. He's off the grid. Lou clenches his jaw and drives faster. 

The mall is in flames, vomiting greasy smoke and the smell of burning plastic. Steam from the firemen's hoses drifts thick through the air. Steve stares at the fire, his expression so openly forlorn that Lou aches for him. 

They find Danny's car on one of the lower parking decks. 

They don't find Danny.

~~~

They do find bodies. Sixteen of them. Lou figures the majority of them were employees. The day was late; the mall was nearly empty.

Sixteen people dead, for no reason Lou can see. 

It's going to take forever to identify them all. 

~~~

Lou thought he met Lieutenant Commander McGarrett on those first few cases they worked together. He can't say he much liked the man. 

Now he learns what Danny (oh god, Danny) was really talking about when he described the man who pulled a gun on him in his father's garage. Steve shuts down, lets himself run on the power of his anger as he throws himself into the case, pursues leads, tries to find witnesses. Anything that distracts him from having to face his grief. Before, Steve was focused, the way any good cop (or soldier) should be. Now, he is driven, almost manic with his bleak determination.

"Have you been home?" Lou asks him, just once, trying not to pay overt attention at the way Steve's hand keeps rubbing up and down the center of his stomach. He doesn't think Steve even knows he's doing it.

"No," Steve says, voice clipped, fingers absently prodding at the transplant scar under his t-shirt.

Which is when Lou realizes he got it all wrong. Because, no, Steve and Danny were not a couple. And yes, it does make a difference.

If they'd been a couple, a liver wouldn't be the only thing Steve is left with. 

~~~

Thing is, Lou does have a lead. 

He finds it on the second day, going once again through the camera recordings that show Danny going into the Ala Moana but don't show him coming back out. It's the tiniest blip on a camera that's pointed at the parking deck. It's a fraction of a second at the very corner of the picture. It's the faintest sliver of a bumper appearing where there should be an empty parking space. 

It's next to nothing, but it's all Lou has. 

He makes a call. 

"Chin," he says when the call connects. "Listen. I need your help, but you can't tell Steve."

For a long moment, Chin is silent. Then Lou hears him sigh.

"This is about Danny." Chin sounds exhausted, like he hasn't been sleeping any more than Steve has. Than any of them have. 

"Yeah," Lou says, and sends him the file. 

If Jerry knew about this, he'd tell Steve. Lou isn't sure of many things right now, but he knows that about the last thing Steve needs is hope. Because if Lou is wrong and that hope is shattered, Steve will shatter right along with it. 

~~~

(Steve still might shatter. When the case is closed, when they've found their perps and handed them over, when Steve finds himself in the driver's seat of the Camaro with no one beside him to break the silence... That's when Steve might just fall apart. Ain't nothing they can do to put him back together again. Not this time.

Lou doesn't want to think about it.

He thinks about it all the time.)

~~~

Lou's flimsy lead results in another one, results in another one, results in Lou making his way as quietly as he can through a stretch of rain forest that, to his city-boy eyes, looks exactly like any other stretch of rain forest on Oahu. 

This is a long shot. It's such a long shot, Lou doesn't think anything can come of it. (But he hopes. Boy, does he hope.)

So when Danny comes stumbling out of the foliage, dirty and limping and looking more than a little crazy around the eyes, Lou barely believes it at first. 

"Oh, _now_ you show up," Danny grouses. He's carrying a crossbow. A god-damned crossbow. "Where are the others?"

Lou can't help himself. He grins. (Later, his cheeks will ache. He'll be okay with that.)

"You're looking at the full extent of your rescue squad," he says. He's fully aware of how Danny will take this. For once, he's looking forward to the fall-out. 

Danny blinks at him. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. Danny... what the hell are doing with a crossbow?"

"What do you think I'm doing with a crossbow?" Danny snaps, waving said crossbow in a jerky arc, thankfully pointing away from Lou. "I'm shooting the morons who thought kidnapping a cop was a good idea, that's what I'm doing with a crossbow. And speaking of cops, look, it's not that I don't think you're capable, okay? You're capable, I _know_ you're capable." Danny takes a deep breath. Lou knows he's about to yell. The expectation makes him almost giddy. "But they couldn't spare more than one guy to come rescue me after three days? _What the hell is the matter with you people_?!"

Lou tells him about the fire. 

Danny curses the whole way back to Lou's car.

~~~

"I have to see my kids," Danny says. He's drumming his fingers on his good leg. 

Lou points at his phone. "You can call Rachel and have her bring them to the Palace."

Danny whips his head around to stare at Lou. "What are you talking about? I'm not going to the Palace. I spent three days in a tiny hut in the jungle! My children think I'm dead! Why the hell would I want to go to the Palace? I want to go see my kids and then go see a doctor, and then I want to go home!"

"That's too bad," Lou says, shifting his grip on the steering wheel, "seeing as I'm driving you to the Palace."

Danny seems ready to argue, but then he pauses.

"Why?" he finally asks. 

"Because," Lou says, "Steve also thinks you're dead."

He wants to add something; wants to explain what the last few days have been like. Wants to tell Danny about the look on Steve's face as he stared at the burning mall.

He doesn't have words for any of this. 

(Then again, this is Danny. If anyone doesn't need explaining, it's him.) 

Danny sighs.

"Drop by my house," he says. "I'm gonna need my cane."

~~~

Lou is the first to reach the office. He took the stairs, leaving Danny to wait for the elevator. Through the glass door, he can see Steve pace beside the tech table. Jerry is poking at something on the interactive surface. Tani and Junior are standing a few steps further away, watching Steve with matching expressions of wariness on their faces. 

Lou doesn't have the door all the way open before Steve wheels on him, pointing his phone at Lou. The knuckles of his fingers are white. Lou may have ignored a few calls.

"Where the hell have you been?" he snaps. "We have a case to work on!" Like Lou doesn't know.

"I got you a present," Lou says with a grin. The grin drops off his face when Steve grows even paler than he already was. (Danny went out to get a present. Danny didn't come back.)

"You," Steve starts, his voice shaking with rage. He stops, seemingly unable to go on.

Lou has never been so glad to hear the ping of the elevator, the clack-and-shuffle of someone walking with a cane. 

He can tell the exact moment Danny rounds the corner behind him. Steve's phone drops from his fingers to land with a clatter, battery spinning off across the glossy floor. Steve stares, open-mouthed, looking like he can't believe what he's seeing. 

Behind him, their teammates' faces brighten.

"Danny!" Tani shouts.

"Lou, get them out," Danny says as he passes Lou, heading straight for Steve. 

"Come on, people, out!" Lou gestures, ignores the way their smiles falter. The important thing is that they follow his (Danny's, because Danny's alive) order and start to file out.

Lou sees Danny reach out with the hand that isn't holding his cane. He sees Steve stumble forward; a magnet pulled in by its counterpart. 

Then Jerry passes him, and Lou closes the door and turns his eyes away from Steve burying his face in Danny's neck, shaking, safe. 

~~~

(It will be weeks before Lou sees them kiss, Steve cradling Danny's face with a gentleness that Lieutenant Commander McGarrett could never manage. Lou will smile and quietly leave, and feel immensely pleased with himself. 

Renee will ask him what has him in such a good mood. 

"The beauty of love," he will say, and the words will come out not half as sarcastic as he means them to.)

~~~

"Where's Danno?" Grace asks, breathless, as she storms through the Palace's main doors, a bewildered Charlie in tow. Her expression holds a hope so fierce, Lou is staggered by it. "Is he upstairs? Can we go see him? Where _is he_ , Lou?"

For all that her looks are from Rachel, she is her father's daughter. 

"He is upstairs," he says, and holds up a hand when she makes to run past him. "Now wait a minute, let me check if he is (decent, crying) ready to see you."

"Why wouldn't he be?" she asks, looking puzzled. Before Lou can reply, her face clears. "Is Uncle Steve with him? We can wait if he's with Uncle Steve. For a minute," she adds, and Lou shakes his head and goes back up the stairs. 

Steve hasn't let go of Danny yet. They're both on the floor, Danny's bad leg stretched out in front of him. Lou can't see either of their faces, but he's willing to bet they both have wet cheeks now.

He clears his throat. 

"Danny? Your kids are here."

There's a moment of silence, then Steve's voice, muffled, "Give me a minute."

"Take all the time you need," Lou tells him, and means it. 

~~~

(The End.)


End file.
